Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. All right, good evening, everyone.

Thanks again for joining this evening for this virtual meeting for the Bidwell Road Neighborhood Street Traffic Calming meeting number one. My name is Chase Fuqua. I'm working on behalf of NDOT on the Neighborhood Street Traffic Calming program. I've got a short slide deck here tonight that we'll go through. Generally, the The agenda will be, we'll give an overview of the program generally, the street traffic calming program. Generally, we'll discuss Fidwell Road and the issues that y'all are seeing out on your street specifically. We'll review the typical traffic calming tools that we implement as part of the program. And then we do have a concept that we'll share and that we'll get into some discussion over. And then we'll go over project next steps and kind of just the process of the traffic calming program and where we go after this meeting. If you are viewing this online after the fact, and if you're here tonight too and I don't get to share your thoughts, please feel free to scan the QR code there. Go to engage.nashville.gov slash traffic calming. There's an open survey for Bidwell Road right now that you can go and leave your thoughts

either after the fact or while we're on the call here.

So the first few slides here are really about traffic calming and how Metro's traffic calming program works on a high level. So traffic calming in the context of the NSTC program focuses on residential streets, so streets that mainly serve folks living on them as opposed to commercial streets, business streets, or throughput streets. We focus on physical solutions that encourage lower speeds and focus a lot on speed reduction. Speed reduction leads to safer speeds. Safer speeds is one of the arms here of the safe system approach, which, if you're not familiar, is something that was put forward by USDOT back in the late 20-teens. Just trying to take a comprehensive approach to roadway safety. You can see that the traffic calming program in Nashville hits on a lot of those, but the biggest one being safer speeds.

Yes, Melinda, I can put the site for comments in the chat box.

I sure can. I will do that a little later on here. Thanks for the question. And yeah, I'll monitor the chat while I'm doing this as well, as best as I can.

Okay. Yep. Yeah, we'll just write that. Let me know if that works. Okay.

So generally safer speeds lead to safer streets. That's generally the idea. And that plays right into Vision Zero. So Vision Zero is an initiative, really a nationwide initiative that USDOT adopted, but also Metro Nashville, along with municipalities and counties all over the country, have adopted this. And it's generally the idea that we should have no serious injuries or fatalities on our roadways. And this is how speed relates to that. So you can see on the graphic there, as speeds increase, so from 25 to 35, 35 to 45, the chance of someone surviving a crash, whether inside or outside a vehicle, but especially outside of a vehicle, if you're a truck, even the difference between a 25 mile an hour, a 35 mile an hour speed, your chance of survival goes down by a third. So it's, yeah, that's why we focus so much on slowing people down as a way to make our streets safer. The program generally is, it's a very popular program. So we get a ton of applications, 650 to be exact, around 650 as of the spring of this year. We go through a spring and fall selection cycle, so generally each fall and spring we select 25 neighborhood streets, so Bidwell Road was a part of that. On the right side there, that's just a live view of the traffic calming tracker at trafficcalming.nashville.gov. That shows all of the projects that are a part of this program that are in various stages, whether that's implemented, going through a process like we are right now, meeting a design, or applications on file, things like that. I want to put a plug in here for Hub Nashville. So Hub Nashville is really your most direct line of communication with Metro and NDOT specifically for anything that you're seeing on your street that you want to report or request. So definitely encourage you, if you haven't been on Hub Nashville before, definitely give it a look. A little bit more about the program. So this is a data-driven process, and that's what this slide's really meant to talk about. So when we have applications come in, we actually go out, if they're not categorically thrown out based off of volume or classification or things like that, we'll go out and collect volume and speed data. You can see those are the two biggest pieces of the pie whenever it comes to how streets are prioritized and selected. Other things that are, you can see the other things that are accounted for kind of in that calculation. But really the main point is, you know, we go out and collect data and go through a prioritization process with all the applications we have on file to come to a selection every spring and fall. Okay, so here we are at Bidwell Road. We're looking at the section from Binkley Road to Old Clarksville Pike, almost a half a mile. We have a posted speed of 30, but an 85th percentile speed of 48 miles an hour. So 18 miles an hour over the posted speed. Volume just around 600 vehicles per day. Street width about 12 feet. Lanes are probably 12, lanes are about 12 feet each, kind of with a striped shoulder there. And then here's, this is just the location. This is a snip from the traffic calming tracker. that shows Bidwell Road there highlighted in yellow, just in the vicinity of the other roads in the area. So, yeah, typically is where we like to pause and want to hear your input and just kind of what you guys experience on the street today, on the road today, and how you experience the street and any issues that you might see that exist out there today. So definitely feel free to come off mute and let me hear your thoughts.

Hi, this is Melinda Perricone. I have a question. When was this study that you just showed up there about the speed and the number of cars? I drive that road almost every single day and I don't recall ever seeing anything that was taking any kind of data, anything across the road or, and I truly drive that piece of road almost every day.

Yeah. I don't have that information off the top, but that's something I can certainly search for in the background here. I mean, our applications, some of them can be quite old, like going back to 2021 or 2022. So it's possible that the data was collected. I will say though, if, yeah, that's accurate. So, I mean, it could have been, it didn't necessarily have to be within the last year, I'm not 100% sure when it was taken, but it's within the last three or four years.

Chase, this is Lynn Reinhardt. I live on that section of road. The study was done in March, I believe. So this is very current information.

Thank you, Mark.

I live on that end of Bidwell Road too, and I don't recall seeing any type of device that would have recorded the information. What would we have been looking for on that?

Yeah, so typically the data collection is performed using like a tube strung out across the road that would pick up the data as Carter drove over it.

Yeah, I'm with the other lady. I haven't seen anything like that. And I live... on the old Clarksville end of it. So I agree.

It was right in the middle of that section directly in front of my house. And what's your street address, sir?

7164. Okay.

So at the end of the day, What type of influence does the opinions of those of us who live on Bidwell Road have regarding getting this approved and or disapproved?

Yeah, that's a great question. So later on in the slideshow, we'll go through the next steps. But there is a there's a balloting process of all the folks who live directly on Bidwell Road and the limits of the project.

So, yeah, I mean, the residents along the street have a lot of say. I did want to pause.

Excuse me, can I ask one more question? This is Melinda Perricone again. So those of us that live past the project that have to drive on that piece of road every day to get anywhere have no say, cannot vote. Is that what you're saying? Only the residents that live where the project is. Is that correct?

Yeah, good question. So there are some slides later on in the presentation where we talk about the balloting zone and the balloting process. So yeah, we'll definitely get to that. But yes, you interpreted that correctly. So the folks who live on the street within the area of the project have a vote on whether or not vertical measures are installed or not.

Are those votes?

Like I said, we can get into the process of that a little later on. Is there anybody else who wants to share what their experience on the street is?

I don't disagree with their having speed, but I work on Ben Allen Road. And there's literally speed cushions extremely close together on that street. And in my opinion, it's a waste of taxpayer money and it tears up vehicles. We'll never get our road plowed again for snow removal. So that's why I asked the question about what impact the votes will actually have.

As someone who lives in the section under question, checking your mail is a dangerous thing to do, moving your garbage can in in the evenings when people are cutting through or coming home from work to go to the other end of Bidwell. And there's metro school buses that run 50 miles an hour down this section of road. So you're taking your life in your own hand to check your own mail. It is a cut through. And folks like you that live on the other end or are cutting through to old Clarksville Pike, if you do the speed limit, great. But nobody does, as the data has shown.

Hi, this is Melinda Perricone again. I have a person that lives on Bidwell that could not get into the meeting, but I have her on my phone and she's like, I'll put her up where she can speak if you can hopefully hear her. Go ahead, Sue.

Okay. I wasn't able to get into the mute. Hey, Melinda.

Melinda, we were hearing that, and then it cut off. I don't know if somebody went on mute, but just letting you know that we can't hear you right now.

Okay. Try again, Sue.

There you go, we can hear you.

Okay, great. Okay, what I was saying, what the lady just said is some of our biggest concerns. We have only had our road plowed probably just the last two years. and i don't live on that section of bidwell road but if it means that we have to go out the other way because that is the only flat part of bidwell road for us to get out if it snows so you will have the rest of the street basically trapped we can't do binkley because there is a dip that never thaws. We can't go the other way because it is so hilly and so winding that it's incredibly dangerous. So if you put the speed bumps in, you are going to have people who will not be able to get out until the road thaws. We also have the ability to have people ticketed, which is what should be happening. We do have a speed limit. And I believe if we had people getting tickets for speeding, then we would have a lot less speeding. As far as getting to the mailboxes, when we moved here, our mailbox was on the upside of the street. We were right at the top of the hill. And I remember telling my husband, when we have kids, we'll never let them get the mail because it would be so dangerous. They wouldn't see us crossing the street. We were able to put the mailbox on our side of the street at the end of our driveway. So we can see cars coming and I just wait until they pass and I get the mail. Same thing with the garbage can. You just watch if somebody's coming, you wait, and then you bring your garbage can down. But the real concern is if we have snowed in, if it had been this winter when we didn't have electricity for five days, there would have been people who would have literally died by not being able to get out. So that is a huge concern.

Well, just for clarification, my mailbox is in my driveway and again, it's a challenge. I'm sitting in my driveway right now and just saw somebody going 65 miles an hour at least down this section of road going home from work.

Yes. I mean, I know that happens and I mean, I see them all the time too. And again, You know, I wait until they pass. And, yeah, speed bumps are going to slow them down, but I think we're going to have so many problems with that. And you think about an ambulance going. If you have all of these speed bumps, and I know there's a lot of people on our street.

I'm sorry?

Sorry, I didn't have on mute, but I mean, I'm not disagreeing that there's going to be some issues that come with this, but as someone who's lived on this road for 10 years and seeing how much traffic has increased, especially with the increased traffic on 24, this is a cut through. And we have dump trucks and school buses and other things. Nobody observes the speed limit. I've had multiple conversations with multiple different officers as I've run into them at local businesses in the Jolton area about working the traffic here. They've all told us different things, but essentially it's we either have been told not to work traffic or there's nowhere to pull somebody over, so they just ignore it. We've made calls to Metro about Oregon traffic and writing tickets over here. I even offered to have a Metro officer leave his car in my driveway so he could write tickets, and they won't do it.

This is Melinda Perricone. I've been pulled over on Biddle Road, so I will tell you they will do it. I don't know if the police that work up here now won't, but I've lived on this road since 1966, and I have been pulled over on Biddle Road, so.

Yeah, I've lived there for 20 plus years, and I've seen police activity on the road as well.

Yeah, we've lived here for 30 years, and I have seen, especially on Stagner, them sitting there waiting to pull people over, and it does make a difference. Again, it's just, I think... Like I was going to say, if there's an ambulance trying to get down our street because they're trying, they have to stop at every one of those little speed bumps. You have somebody who's injured in there or who's sick and they have all this equipment. I just think we're asking for a lot of problems by adding.

Hey, Chase, this is Rick.

Thanks, everyone. Thanks, everyone, so far for providing this input. I just want to, and I think somebody was just trying to jump in, but I just want to make sure that everyone gets their voice heard and there's a lot of people on the call. If anybody else wants to come off mute, give their perspective.

I was just going to ask if you can shed some light on the snow plows won't plow your road if they have speed bumps. I know I've seen that talked about quite a bit, but I don't have any evidence that that's the case. I mean, since you're a contractor with NDOT, is that something that you can bring back and say, Yes, confirmed if you have speed bumps on your road in dot will not plow the road. Or is it 1 of those situations where it's maybe just some hearsay that's been passed around? Because I think that is something that shows up pretty continuously with residents of as the speed bumps get brought up and it's. I will say that it's not personally a concern of mine, but I totally recognize why people have that concern. So I think that would be good to answer that. And then also what I will say is living on Rawlings Road and having the speed cushions out on the road, typically the fire trucks and the ambulances do not slow down for the speed bumps. And again, it's largely dependent on what kind of equipment that specific fire department is using. But the track width of the ambulances and the fire trucks up here in Nashville is such that it allows them to straddle the speed cushions. and so we still see them running lights and sirens down the street and most of the time they do not slow down for the speed bumps at all which means that they're working exactly as intended yeah so on the um yeah thank you for that so on the on the plowing question um i want to give you a good response to that unfortunately i don't have it right now but i do want to come back with that whenever

and give you a good answer there.

Thank you.

And then on the question of the emergency vehicles and the speed humps and the speed cushions, we do have a slide later that shows those. I mean, I'm sure you're all familiar with how they look. But yeah, the gaps in the speed cushions and how we space those are meant for emergency vehicles and how they, like you mentioned, how they can straddle those and maintain their speed. So that's what the gaps are for there. Okay. Is there any, I know we got a lot of folks on the call. I want to be respectful of folks' time. Is there anybody else on the call here who wants to come off mute and kind of just give their experience on Bidwell before we move into a little bit more of what's proposed?

Hello, can you hear me?

Yeah, is that you council member?

I just wanted to let, you know, I'm here. I had a little trouble getting on. I had to go through manually. And input the number, but I just want you to know that I am here and listening to what everyone's saying, but I did want everyone to know. That it because a lot of people were believed that it's up to me. This is totally not up to me. It is not up to me at all. It's up to the residents that live on that street. I didn't request it. I didn't request or not requested. I had nothing to do with it. So I just wanted to say that, but I am here. I'm listening and thank you all for coming out and setting up the meeting. Thank you.

Thank you.

I had a question about what you were saying about the emergency vehicles are able to straddle those speed bumps. Wouldn't the school buses and the dump trucks and the larger vehicles be able to do that as well?

Generally, the idea is that the way that those are spaced allows for folks to straddle them. Yeah, I can't speak to specifically every type of vehicle. generally yes so so basically it's not going to slow down some of the the larger vehicles that are going to be on the street yeah so it's meant to allow for some of the ones with the wider you know wheel rider wheel paths right so like an ambulance or fire truck or something like that

I know you said that the people only will be able to vote is the people on that little section of where you're putting the speed bumps. However, I've been here for 40 years. and i have to travel that road just like everybody else does and it affects me just as well as them now granted i'm not out doing my picking up my mail or taking the trash cans in however if you think just because you're on this flat stretch at the very beginning they're doing faster than they are when they get to my place That would be wrong. That's incorrect. So just to put speed bumps there, and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying let's do speed bumps all the way down. That's crazy. Because what that does is if we put speed bumps where you're talking about, then people, instead of using this as a cut through, as it's been said, will just continue on down Eden's Creek, which is going to make that more traveled. And also they'll probably be going just as fast. So yeah, you may be stopping them from coming our way, but they're gonna go another way just as fast and just as many people. So, and like I said, I'm on the other end, I'm at one mile from the interstate and they don't slow down when they get here.

But again, they're gonna go fast once they pass the speed bumps anyway.

if we're not doing something to address the issue.

They may go even faster because they're pissed off about the speed bumps. Right.

Thanks for the feedback and the input. I think we're going to get ready to move on in the slideshow. unless there's anybody else here that wants to provide, there'll be more chances to provide opinions and thoughts here in a few minutes. So I'm just gonna keep going.

Okay.

Generally, the toolkit that the Traffic Helping Program uses, so I think you're all familiar with speed cushions. These are generally, these are proposed pretty widely on a lot of NSTC projects. Speed cushions are characterized by the gaps that are left in between the devices that allow for that straddling that we've been talking about. Different than that are speed tables, so similar idea but without the gaps. Here's some information. I talked earlier about speed reduction and how the NSTC program focuses on physical solutions to force lower speeds. This is just some before and after data. So whenever applications come in, we actually, we do go out and collect data, volume and speed on the streets that apply. So whenever the projects are, the projects that are approved and then that are implemented, last year, we actually went out and took a bunch of after data on all those streets. And that's what you're seeing right here, the results of. So you can see the average speed before 32.7, reducing to 24.4, so an 8.3 change, all the way up to The highest speeds are the 95th percentile speeds where you have your 42 mile an hour speed before, have almost a 10 mile an hour reduction after the speed cushions go in. Radar speed feedback signs. These are typically placed where you might not be able to put a cushion because of grade, like too steep of a hill or a horizontal curve, sight distance issues, things like that. Narrowing, I can, this is typically, you already have a striped shoulder with about 11 to 12 foot lengths. This wouldn't be proposed on Fidwell. Slower, safer shoulder, the same thing. Typically, if we have a wide street that we're able to narrow sufficiently to provide, you know, like a three to five foot shoulder on the side, we like to stripe that out and provide some space for people to walk their dog and things like that. Hole bouts, hole bouts are similar to narrowing, just at intersections, so you harden the turning radius, make it harder for people to take curves quickly and have to move through and navigate that slowly. Chicanes, generally providing horizontal deflection across the road, again, not relevant to the dwell width and narrow width. Pinch points, similar to a chicane, but you're forcing people down to one lane or travel, so it's a yield condition. And then traffic circles, something that we do sometimes on our largest, on some of our larger intersections. Okay, so what's coming up on the screen now is the current proposed concept. And this is where we want to get, we definitely want to get your feedback on this and talk through it. So the, and talk about anything that you might want to see changed or adjusted. But just generally, so the north arrow is pointing up, or to the left here. So you see the interstate, which is the north end, starting at Dinkley Road. So coming southbound, so towards Old Clarksville Pike, would start with the radar speed feedback sign. Because like you guys are saying already, people are going to be approaching this at a high rate of speed coming towards Old Clarksville Pike. So providing that upfront reminder of folks traveling at a high rate of speed. coming into the cushion section. And then basically four evenly spaced cushions kind of between 450 and 500 feet apart based off of the posted speed of 30 miles an hour to the stop sign at old Clarksville Pike.

So I'll stop here and yeah, open it for comment and discussion.

Well, I think the radar speed sign would be great to have. Okay. And maybe a sign saying, hey, if you don't slow down, we're going to put speed bumps down. But I think the number of speeds we should have is zero. Don't call us back. We can read what you're saying, maybe.

This is this is Melinda again. I agree with comments of whoever was just asking. Is there something that we can be done in the interim before we go to this drastic move of putting a spending these. Taxpayer dollars to put these things on our road. Is there not something is can we can our council woman perhaps. be an advocate for us to get the police to be on the road more? Or is there I mean, this seems to be we've gone from zero to 100 in 10 seconds from Yes, we have a problem to Let's put four speed humps in a matter of half a mile, maybe. Is that maybe what that is? So is there not some interim solution we can find? And then if that doesn't work, then perhaps that has to go. But it just seems like we're kind of killing a fly with a sledgehammer here.

Move meeting to a video device.

Yeah, maybe it would be helpful to say – This application or this project came out of an application process where four folks who live on this section of old Clarksville Pike put together an application and asked for a traffic calming project. And so as part of that process, we went out and collected data. The street was selected. We put together put together a concept for us all to review and then it'll go to the process. To where yes or no on whether or not.

Um, so no, that doesn't directly answer your question.

Where do you go?

Sherry, we can hear you talking on if you could mute.

What was the name of again? What'd you say?

Webex.

Traffic Common.

Webex. Traffic Common.

Bidwell Road. There's a message from Sherry on the side that says she can't hear or see the meeting.

I don't think they shared you. Okay.

Yeah, I know we've had a lot of discussion already, but I want to next step after this in the presentation. And so, yeah, I want to make sure that we get any thoughts or comments out on the concept as it stands. Yeah, kind of get those out now so we can move into talking about next steps and where we go from here.

Does anybody else have thoughts or feedback on the concept as shown here? Okay. Okay, so moving on.

So this is just a flow chart that shows how the different steps in the process of the traffic calming program. On the top left, kind of the first three bubbles there we've kind of talked about already. So the application process or selections are made two times a year based off of the data-driven prioritization process. We come to a neighborhood meeting, so that's the red circle and that's where we're at now. And so after this, what we'll do is we'll actually go out in the field and we'll make, we'll refine the design, actually put design plans together. There's an option for a second neighborhood meeting. However, if we choose to forego that, if the neighborhood chooses to forego that, the plans will be posted online and then we'll move to an online balloting process. I have more information on the balloting process on the next slide. But generally, mailers are sent out similar to the one that you may have received to attend this meeting. It's a six-week window for voting and success is based off of 66% of respondents voting yes. And if it's a yes, then we'll move to construction. If no, then we'll develop what's called a plan B, which doesn't include speed questions. So the balloting process, you see a sample of what the ballot would look like in the top left. Again, very similar to what you may have received to attend this meeting. It'll be, it'll stay very, very clearly kind of what the voting, the end of the voting is. There'll be a QR code and a link, and you'll receive a unique ID to go online and cast your vote. Voting is open six weeks. And again, closing dates can be on the mailer. It's just a simple yes or no. And it's based off of a two thirds vote. So in order for the project to move forward with speed cushions, two thirds of people who respond have to vote yes.

Then here's the balloting zones.

As I mentioned earlier, it's the folks that live on the section of Bidwell where the speed cushions are proposed. So from Binkley down to old Clarksville Pike, all the parcels highlighted in red there. Residential properties, churches, schools get one vote. If there's an owner that owns multiple properties on the street, they still get one vote. vacant properties and businesses aren't eligible to have a vote. I want to emphasize too, if you're on this meeting or if you're viewing this online after the fact and you feel like you should have gotten a mailer and you didn't receive one to attend this meeting, definitely encourage you to reach out. We've got our contact information on the next slide, but we want to make sure that you get what you need to get your voice heard.

any questions on the the balloting process or where we go from here why is it fair that the people just those people are able to to do have a ballot when i have to travel that road every day this is my road i've been here 40 years Why is it fair for just them who may live halfway and they only got two speed cushions to go through to get back to Clarksville Highway, Oak Clarksville Highway or Binkley?

Yeah.

It's the same for each project that goes through. Go ahead, Melinda.

I have another question. I mean, I totally agree with the gentleman who just said that. But my other question is, so if only these people get to vote, then if we go on to the website that you gave us to give our comments, Are our comments even going to be considered if we don't live in that small piece of Bidwell Road? I mean, you encouraged us to make comments afterwards and gave us the site to do that, and I very much appreciate that. But if only these residents are going to be the ones that make the decision, are our comments even going to be looked at and taken into consideration? And that may not be a question you can answer, but it's just, I'm concerned about that. I'm concerned that we have an opportunity to make our comments known and our thoughts known, but if only this group of people are going to get to vote, then do only their comments matter on what happens with this project?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so generally, I mean,

like I was starting to say earlier, the balloting process is the same one that's gone through for all the other streets that have been on this program. It's kind of our standard protocol. And really, that's what the ballot is for. I mean, it's a two-thirds vote, not just the simple majority. So, I mean, generally, it's whether or not... We shared some of that data earlier on kind of why we focus on, like, why we do implement speed cushions and propose those because they are proven to work as far as reducing speed goes where they're implemented. And so, I mean, that's kind of why the ballot was implemented to say, I mean, it is, do you want speed cushions on this stretch of road or not? And generally that's, yeah, that's the protocol of how the balloting works.

Respectfully, you did not answer her question about whether or not her comment would be considered.

I guess the vote is really to determine, because I think the comment that I'm hearing is that we have some folks who are against the speed cushions on the street, and then we have some folks who are for the speed cushions on the street. And if the comment is that we don't want cushions, speed cushions, then that's why we have a vote in place to determine that. But if I may clarify. Other comments on the design, such as like placement of the cushions or things like that, or other things that you, any other ideas that you'd have us consider that are within the scope of the program, we're happy to listen to.

But is it only the people that are affected on that piece of biblical rub? That's my question. So I don't live there. I live on past that. So if I say, here's my concerns, the snow, the. Vehicle, the emergency vehicles, things of that nature. Because I don't live on that stretch of the road are my comments going to even be. considered or if we just make comments and it doesn't matter once the vote those people vote and they vote that's done then comments don't even matter why why give comments if if it's the vote and the vote last and if it's two-thirds vote then it's done i mean i don't even see the point of making comments if it's if that's the way it's gonna if that's how this works yeah

Understood. I understand. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for providing your thoughts and perspective.

Ace, why is it?

How was it determined that just that section of the road was going to be able to vote instead of the entire road, which is affected by this? I'm a resident of 20 years as well. It's not to say that we don't have speeders. I think there should be, we should have a vote in that, or at least have some other measurement implemented before this. And honestly, I think our tax dollars should go more towards something like a red light at Eaton's Creek and Clarksville Pike, which is horrible there. And so the speed cushions.

Yeah, I mean, to answer your first question about how the limits of the project were determined, that was based off of the applications. When the application comes in, there's a specification of And the project limits sets.

Well, the only thing about that is we didn't even know that there was application submitted until we heard it on the news, I believe. So it's kind of like we were in the dark until it was already in progress. And we, of course, we didn't get anything in the mail either. So we're kind of on the back end.

And can I hear me? You all hear me to know here.

Okay.

Thanks to add to that. So we have basically a handful of houses. At the end of the street that only have to go basically a few. 100 yards you get to Clarksville highway. They are the only ones who have a say about whether we get speed bumps when we have dozens and dozens of houses past that that have to travel half a mile or a mile in that direction to get out, to go to work, to go to the grocery, whatever, when it's snowing. And those dozens of houses have no say just because of how the application was done and we didn't know about it.

And he's already said that there was four people on the application. So obviously those four individuals are going to vote yes for it.

So it's.

It just seems like a lot of people who are impacted by this even more than the people who are who have applied for the speed bumps, because all of us have traffic going past us. that so many people who are impacted by this have absolutely no say.

I have a question.

Yes, Council Member Kimbrough.

Okay. Do you know offhand how many households will have a vote? It's one per household, correct?

Yes, it's one per essentially, One per owner on the street.

Okay, one per owner. And do you know how many different households or how many people, churches or whatever, will be getting a vote? Do you know the total number of possible votes?

Council Member Kimbrough, I don't want to tell you wrong, but I believe that it's 24. 24? I believe 24.

Let me clarify.

I believe 24 property owners were sent a mailer.

Okay. And then my next question, I was looking at your slide and it says of those that respond, they have to read 66%. So hypothetically, let's say you send out 24 to those 24 property owners. If only three respond, will the vote be taken based on those three that respond?

Yes.

Okay, so if to say yes, and 1 says, no, that means you'll get that get the speed bumps speed cushions. I'm sorry. And if to say no, and 1 says, yes, that means you will not get it. Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure I understood the concept. Thank you.

Yes, thank you for those. Thank you for that. Council member.

Again, how can the other residents on the other end of the road, how can we not be in this vote as well since we were late in the game to make it fair?

Because we are part of the road.

Yeah, so the balloting process.

So again, so the application was put in by the four residents on the street. this section of bidwell road those other than those four applicants you know i think as you mentioned you know this project was advertised back in back in the spring and then this is meeting once this is the first really outreach that we've done about the project so when did all four applicants put in their applications what were the dates yeah that's a good question

that's a good question i don't have that right in front of me because that would determine the time period between when they applied and when we heard it on the news which was already a done deal well so whenever a project is uh selected right there's it's really just based off of if someone applied and if

you know, the speed and the volume on the street, you know, was in the top 20. And along with a couple of those other factors that I showed earlier, we're in the top 25 out of like the six or 700 streets that are kind of in the queue. So, I mean, once the project is applied for and it goes into the, and it makes it into that top 25, you know, we start this process where we put together a concept and have the meeting.

so when you all take into consideration when and where to put these um speed cushions do you factor in wrecks fatalities and things like that because as far as i know we haven't had any that's one piece of the equation so really just looking at vulnerable users so people walking and biking um but the largest chunk of the pot there so over half

70 i believe um is weighted for to speed and volume yes but how many wrecks or anybody that has gotten hit on this road has it happened yeah i'm not i'm not sure but there there are certainly um plenty of streets that get selected that that don't have

a crash history, but the speed and volume are kind of what carried them into the top 25.

Respectfully to the three or four of y'all that are obviously very opposed to this, the data speaks for itself. Eighty-four percent of the cars that travel this road on a daily basis are doing 18 miles an hour over the speed limit. You know, if it was three miles an hour, five miles an hour, sure, it'd be something we could discuss. They're doing almost 20 miles an hour over the speed limit, 84% of the cars. It's clear. It's dangerous. Nobody's on the street riding bicycles because they don't want to get run over. Nobody walks on the street because they don't want to get hit. which I've tried to do many times and almost been run over. So, I mean, the data is there. That monitoring system was out there for three weeks. It's a big volume of data. Eighty-four percent are doing 18 miles an hour over the speed limit.

Respectfully, I'm sorry.

I was going to say, I respectfully disagree with the fact that people don't walk on the street. I see people walking on that. Into the street all the time and as far as that, you don't walk much on the other end, because there's blind curves and things like that and uneven.

Road space.

Hi. This is Melinda Paragon again. I was going to just voice my same opinion about that and respectfully disagree. I see people walking, biking all the time. On that end, and on our end even, and I live further on down, but... And I think that no one on this call is disagreeing that they're speeding. I don't think anybody's disagreeing with that. I think the issue is, again, to use my analogy, we're killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Can we not do something in the interim before we go to this drastic of a solution?

And in a vote that we have no, the rest of us have no say in.

Okay. Okay, well really appreciate everybody's time and discussion.

Before we wrap up here in the next couple of slides, I just wanna share again that you can go, if you're viewing this online after the fact, please feel free to visit the QR code there, fill out the survey. If you have questions or you wanna talk this through offline after this, We've got our contact information there, n.traffichoming.nashville.gov. And then I've got David and his contact information there. David will be the engineer record on this one, and he'll probably be in contact with you later on. He unfortunately wasn't able to join after he was in a car accident earlier this week, and so I'm covering for him tonight.

But you should feel, please keep us both copied if you do reach out.

Okay, is there anything, any other questions or any other thoughts that we want to get out before we move along and go into the rest of our evening?

Okay.

Hearing none, thank you all for joining.

Really appreciate all the thoughts and discussion. and you'll be hearing from us soon as far as when the design plans are posted on NDOT's website and balloting opens.

I have one last question. I'm sorry. I just wanted to understand. You said that you mail the ballots out. Is that right? Is that what you said?

Correct. Yeah, they're mailed to the owners of these parcels here.

But then you vote online. So pretty much they get the instructions on how to go online and vote. Is that right?

Yeah, correct. So on the top left there, that's what it would look like. And there will be a unique ID. So you'll go online, kind of looks like on the bottom left there, and they'll enter in the ID and you'll get prompted to vote yes or no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thanks for coming out this evening and doing that. Thank you.

Yeah, appreciate you.

Forgive me, Chase, if you've mentioned this, but when should we expect that next postcard so that we can be on the lookout for it?

For the ballot? Yes. Here in the next, really in the next four to six weeks.

Thank you. Mm-hmm.

There we go. Balloting begins. Yeah, it'll be about four to six weeks. Okay. Okay. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thank you.